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Why is it so hard to find a good app sometimes? Even such a simple thing as a basic timer app can be surprisingly hard to find. You wouldn’t think that it would be so hard to figure out a way to display alarms and have some degree of customization, but I’ve had a hard time finding the perfect app for my needs. Lo and behold: today, I found a totally killer Mac App that I am head over heels in love with. It’s called AlarmBar, and it was developed by Atlas Wegman aka iiAtlas.
What is it and what does it do
Main Functionality
With a new version released earlier this summer, AlarmBar offers a reformulated and repackaged alarm/timer tool that’s essentially rebuilt from the first version of the app. AlarmBar lets you schedule alarms and pair them with a sound of your choosing.
Pros
- Great interface
- Takes up very little space
- Ability to run an AppleScript on alarm complete
- Choose the sound that’s paired with your alarm
- Keep a list of saved alarms for easy repeating
- Launches from the menu bar with an intuitive tab-based interface
- Enter your desired alarm times as “five minutes from now” or by picking a specific date and time
Cons
- Script commands must be written in AppleScript (but from within AppleScript, you can execute commands with another language)
- AppleScript within this app can only be used to target a select number of services at the present time: Safari, iTunes, Mail, Google Chrome, and System Events
Discussion
Bar none, if you’re the kind of Mac fan who likes to use AppleScripts, this is the timer for you. AlarmBar lets you write your own customized functions, allowing a greater degree of personalization than many other timer apps for Mac currently on the market.
AlarmBar really sets the bar high for design fans. The app has a sleek, modern look. There are over 10 different alarm sounds for your to choose from. At launch, you can see both an analog clock and a calendar for the current month, as well as the screen for setting a new alarm or accessing your library of saved alarms.
Overall, AlarmBar feels very intuitive. There is a pretty large help section that can help you get oriented, but you don’t really need to pore over it to figure out how to use this timer app. When not in active use, the timer icon just sits in your menu bar: the picture of unobstrusiveness.
Conclusion and download link
With a great interface, tons of customization options, and a sleek design that just looks good, AlarmBar is a really solid tool for keeping you on time and on task. It will be of particular interest to Mac users who like to customize their apps with AppleScript. Definitely give it a go, because it’s really solid.
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 1.1
Supported OS: OS X 10.7 or later
Download size: 1.8 MB
